Fadil Hoxha

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Fadil Hoxha
2nd Communist President of Kosovo
In office 11 July 1945 – 20 February 1953 24 June 1967 – 7 May 1969
Preceded by	Mehmed Hoxha Stanoje Aksic
Succeeded by	Ismet Saqiri Ilaz Kurteshi
Born	15 March 1916 Đakovica, Kosovo
Died	April 23, 2001 Priština, Kosovo
Political party	Communist League of Kosovo

Fadil Hoxha (Đakovica, 15 March 1916 – April 23, 2001 in Priština) was a Yugoslav (Kosovo Albanian) politician.

As a young man, Hoxha migrated from his home town of Đakovica to attend secondary school in Albania, since secondary education in the Albanian language was unavailable in Kosovo. He continued his education in the town of Shkodër and later in Elbasan. In Albania he joined a communist cell which provided him his first exposure to the ideas of Marxism-Leninism.

He returned to Kosovo in 1941, where he worked as a teacher. In the same year he abandoned his post to become one of the founders of the communist partisan movement in Kosovo. Within a short time Hoxha rose in partisan ranks to become commander, leading batallions which had in their ranks primarily Kosovar Albanians and a number of Serbs who fought against fascism and nazism and the Italian and later German occupation of Kosovo.

Hoxha was instrumental in the Kosovo communist movement's efforts at adopting a resolution at the Bujan Conference of 1943, which expressed the wish of Kosovo for national self-determination and unification with Albania. However, under Serbian pressure, the Yugoslav Communist Party annulled the resolution, which resulted in Hoxha's marginalization in the party after the end of the war in 1945 and Kosovo's reinstitution into Serbia with a limited degree of autonomy.

Hoxha's political influence in the Yugoslav Communist Party and grew during the 1960s, especially after the removal of Serb hardliner Aleksandar Ranković by Josip Broz Tito from the upper echelons of the party. As interior minister, Ranković had pursued a notorious policy of repression against Albanians, which was later criticized by the party. Hoxha led efforts to advance Kosovo's constitutional status in a series of constitutional reforms that took place in Yugoslavia. The efforts were consecrated by the Yugoslav constitution of 1974, which granted Kosovo an equal republican status in all but name.

Hoxha also fought for the expansion of federal aid and development programs in Kosovo, which led to Kosovo's rapid industralization throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Hoxha also led or otherwise supported political battles for the expansion of cultural and educational institutions in the Albanian language, leading to the establishment of the University of Priština in 1970 and a Kosovo Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Hoxha subscribed to the principles of Yugoslav policy of "brotherhood and unity," believing in the need to achieve national equality between Albanians, Serbs, and other national groups within Kosovo and Yugoslavia.

In 1981, Hoxha faced harsh criticism from radical Kosovar Albanian nationalist movements because of his opposition to the massive demonstrations that occurred in the spring of that year, which demanded republican status for Kosovo and Kosovo's unification with Albania. Hoxha and the Kosovar provincial leaders also faced criticism by the Yugoslav party leadership for failures in curtailing the rise of Albanian nationalism in Kosovo.

Hoxha held a number of high posts in Kosovo and Yugoslavia. He served as president of the Assembly of the Kosovo Autonomous Province. He also received the title of People's Hero of Yugoslavia. In 1967 he was appointed to the Yugoslav Communist Party Presidium and in 1974 became a member of the Federal Presidency. In 1978-79 he held the rotating post of president of the Federal Presidency, the highest leadership post in Yugoslavia under Tito.

After the rise of Slobodan Milošević to power in Serbia, Hoxha, though retired, became subject to a number of political attacks labelling him a nationalist and supporter of secessionism. Hoxha was expelled from the Yugoslav Communist League and in 1991 the Milošević government tried him of treason in what was intended as a show trial.

Though in old age, Hoxha survived the 1999 Kosovo War and remained in Kosovo until the end of the war in hiding. He died of natural causes in 2001, and was buried with honors in his home town of Đakovica.

Hoxha has published his wartime diary Kur pranvera vonohet [When Spring is Late] (Priština: Rilindja, 1980) and a three-volume collection of speeches and articles in Jemi në shtëpinë tonë [This is our Home] (Priština: Rilindja, 1986).

Preceded by Mehmed Hoxha	President of Kosovo 1945–1953	Succeeded by Ismet Saqiri
Preceded by position created	Prime Minister of Kosovo 1945–1963	Succeeded by Ali Shukrija
Preceded by Stanoje Aksic	President of Kosovo 1967–1969	Succeeded by Ilaz Kurteshi
Preceded by Stevan Doronjski	Vice-President of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 1978–1979	Succeeded by Lazar Koliševski